Characteristic of Johnston's friendship was its singular demonstrativeness. He embraced and kissed his male friends as tenderly as if they were women. " I have said he was the most affectionate of men," writes Stiles. " It will surprise many, who saw only the iron bearing of the soldier, to hear that we never met or parted, for any length of time, that he did not, if we were alone, throw his arms about me and kiss me, and that such was his habit in parting from or greeting his male relatives and most cherished friends." ^^
In his domestic relations there was the same tender- ness, the same devotion. He adored his wife, and their love was a lifelong idyl, diversified, as idyls should be, by sunny mocking and sweet merriment. He had no child- ren, but his nephews and nieces were as near to him as children. When he was told, in Mexico, of one nephew's death, '* the shock was so great that he fell prostrate upon the works. Up to the day of his death, forty-four years later, Johnston kept a likeness of his nephew in his room
With all this, is it any wonder that men loved him and resent bitterly to-day the inevitable conclusions drawn from his own written words ? Bragg wrote, in answer to one of Johnston's kind letters: "That spontaneous offer from a brother soldier and fellow-citizen, so honored and esteemed, will be treasured as a source of happiness and a reward which neither time nor circumstances can im- pair." S5 Kirby Smith wrote : ** I would willingly be back
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